The debate on Darwinism and religion, 1876

This letter from zoologist and geologist Frederick Wollaston Hutton supported Darwinism during the 1876 evolutionary debate in Otago. Thinkers such as the Presbyterian theologian William Salmond argued that Darwinian evolution should be rejected as incompatible with Christianity. Hutton maintained that it was possible to accept Darwin's evolutionary theories without rejecting religion. Salmond later declared himself converted to this view after hearing Hutton's lecture on the subject. By the end of the 19th century most New Zealand scientific thinkers had accepted evolutionary theory.